Assistant Professor & Program Director for Adult-Gerontology Primary Care
Dr. Tracy Vernon-Platt earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996 and 2005, respectively. Most recently, she earned a doctor of nursing practice from Duke University in 2020. She began her nursing career in medical-surgical nursing at UNC Health Care, then spent 4.5 years working in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit. That is where she developed her passion for chronic disease management and cardiovascular diseases. She began working as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in 2005 with the cardiac surgery team at UNC Health. She maintains in active clinical practice with that team.
Dr. Vernon-Platt started teaching in the graduate nursing program here at UNC Chapel Hill in 2012. She now serves as the faculty lead for the adult-gerontology primary care NP program (AGPCNP). She is a member of the American Nurses Association, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and the American College of Cardiology.
Her doctoral work focused on a quality improvement initiative with pre-operative exercises to improve post-operative outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac surgeries. She has been a speaker at state conferences on topics focusing on EKG interpretation and management of cardiovascular disease.
Vernon-Platt, T, Bowers, M., Ikonomidis, J., Caranasos, T., & Beer, D. (2021). Preoperative home-based exercises to decrease length of stay and post-operative pulmonary complications: A clinical practice innovation. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 17(6), 740-743.
Selzman, C.H., Chang, P., Vernon-Platt, T., Bowen, A., Kowalczyk, S., & Sheridan, B. (2007). Use of the Jarvik 2000 continuous flow ventricular assist device for acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock. Journal of Heart Lung Transplant, 26, 756-758.